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Maybe it’s the cooler weather or the leaves changing colours on the trees – what ever it is, I’ve been thinking about apple crumble lately. So, I decided to try to see if I could make a reasonable alternative that was Slimming World friendly and that got me to eat my scan bran for the day.

It was all a bit trial-and-error and if I were to make it again, I would definitely make it a bit differently. But, the result was actually pretty tasty. I assembled it all the night before and stuck it in the fridge – that gave the scan bran the chance to absorb some moisture from the apples and also meant I had a lovely breakfast practically waiting for me… all I had to do was stick it in the oven.

I started by chopping up some apples. I used one Red Delicious and two Golden Delicious, because that’s what was in the fridge, but I’m sure this would be even better with some Bramley apples.

According to my Slimming World book, 375g of cooked apples can be counted as a Healthy Extra B or 6 syns. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to figure out how much the apples weigh after they’re cooked, so I opted for 375g of raw apples, figuring they could only get lighter and that meant I didn’t go over allowance (remember, you get two Healthy Extra As and Bs if you’re doing Red or Green days – that can help to keep the syn value of this recipe down – if you want to use all five scan bran biscuits).

Next, I added 25g of raisins. These are completely optional, but can count as a Healthy Extra B or 4 syns. I also added a sprinkling of mixed spice and a tablespoon of muscavado sugar (3 syns). The sugar could be replaced with sweetener to taste if you wanted to keep your syns down.

Then, I blitzed five scan brans, turning them into powder and added them to the mixture. If I weren’t doing the scan bran challenge, I would have cut the number of scan bran biscuits I used down to two or three. Or maybe switch them out for a Hex B amount of porridge oats instead.

Finally, I mixed everything together, added splash of water, covered it with cling film and stuck it in the fridge over night.

In the morning, the scan bran had absorbed a good bit of moisture from the apples, and to be honest I could have eaten this and enjoyed it without cooking it. But I added a bit more water, gave it a good coating of butter-flavour Fry Light, covered it with foil and baked it at 220 degrees C for about half an hour.

When it was done cooking, there was a beautiful smell in the kitchen and the apples had gone nice and soft. Then I scooped it all onto a plate, gave it a nice coating of fat-free vanilla yoghurt and tucked in.

Here’s the basic recipe – it seems like the recipe would be pretty forgiving, so you should be fine to change things around to suit your tastes and syn values.

Scan bran apple crumble

18 syns on Extra easy (subtract 6 if using apples or scan bran as Hex B)

18 syns on Green (subtract 12 if using apples and scan bran as Hex B)

Ingredients

375g apples, chopped

25g raisins

Mixed spice to taste

1 tbsp muscavado sugar (substitute with sweetener to reduce syns)

5 scan bran biscuits (fewer to taste or 35g porridge oats)

Water

Butter-flavour Fry Light

Syn-free vanilla yoghurt

Instructions

Mix together apples, raisins, mixed spice and sugar in a baking dish

Use a food processor or coffee grinder to crush scan bran into a breadcrumb-like texture and add to mixture with a splash of water. Allow mixture to sit for several hours or overnight, so scan bran can absorb moisture from apples and water.

Mix everything again, spray with Fry Light and cover with foil. Bake at 220 degrees C for about half an hour, or until apples are soft.